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One Thing Atheists and Christians Can Agree On

No doubt many have run into an atheist who is adamant about the non-existence of God (usually, in a more specific sense, the Judaeo-Christian God of the Bible). Whether it is all religions or just Christianity in general, they tend to reject what they believe is blind faith and fairy tales. Of course, they are entitled to their opinion. And there is no small shortage of satirical and philosophical rhetoric that some of them use to “refute” the existence of God. But, if you pay attention to the arguments they use to defame, blaspheme, and misalign God, there is one thing that Christians can agree with them on – the god they believe doesn’t exist really doesn’t.

A Strawman Argument is a logical fallacy that someone sets up as a misrepresentation, exaggeration, or complete fabrication of someone else’s position in order to make their own argument seem more reasonable. In this case, many atheists misrepresent their understanding of God/gods and portray them in such a way as to make their own argument seem reasonable, logical, and justified. But, in doing so, they not only set up a strawman, but they commit the most common and widely violated of all sins – idolatry. How? Well, it’s simple.

Anytime you hear an atheist speak, you will usually hear them mock God’s love in contrast to His justice (hell). Or misrepresent His “inability” to answer prayer. Or maybe you might hear how they don’t agree with Him creating intelligent human beings, yet require them to use “faith” to trust in Him (as if faith is absolutely blind). These are just a few of the many. But even if there is an answer to every misrepresentation they have about God, the most important thing is to reveal that although they don’t believe in God, they have inevitably made one up in their own mind! They have set up a divine strawman by which they can reason against over and over so that they can justify their suppression of the truth (Rom 1:8). So even though atheists may suppress the knowledge of God, and know that the true God of the Bible exists, in order for them to ease their conscience and justify their sin, they must create an image of god that suits themselves. A god that that they can deny, vilify, and reject by the approval of their own thoughts and imaginations. Most of their arguments do not work if they don’t do this. Whether you set up a idol to worship to go to war with, it is still idolatry.

Hopefully this strikes you as a much different approach then just providing scientific evidence for God’s existence. This is a mixed approach between revealing their sin and pressupostionally showing them another reason how and why they reject God. Next time you hear a false representation of God, you should disarm the atheist by telling them something like this, “Boy, I’m glad that the god that you are talking about doesn’t exist, because if he did, I would be an atheist too.” Because when you really get down to the nitty-gritty, what atheists do is exchange the truth of God for a lie (Rom 1:25) just like everyone else who does not know Him. And since eternal life is defined by knowing Christ intimately (John 17:3), other than the fact that the typical atheist is just suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, we must engage them by showing them that they are just like every other religion in the world (yes, atheism is a religion) that believes in false gods. Except theirs is just a deified punching bag that they can throw philosophical blows at in order to make themselves feel superior, more intelligent, and morally justified in their sin.

While other world religions offer sacrifice to their gods in order to appease them, atheists repeatedly sacrifice their false representation of God on the altar of reason, logic, and scientific method (systems of thinking our Lord Jesus Christ gave them) in order to appease themselves. But hey, at least now when we speak to atheists, Christians can agree that the god they are talking about truly doesn’t exist. Because once they are introduced to the God of the Bible, Jesus Christ, and are regenerated by His Spirit, they will no longer speak defiantly, but devotedly; no longer with a heart of war, but of worship.

Let’s pray for the atheists that we witness to and bring the light of the gospel to them.

Below is an quick example on dealing with these kinds of atheists in conversation.

-Until we go home

Disclaimer: DefCon does not support Peter Kreeft. Only the quote used in the link window.

5 thoughts on “One Thing Atheists and Christians Can Agree On”

Why post a quote, irrespective of its content from Peter Kreeft, a former Calvinist turned hard core Catholic? He also believes that the RCC is the ONE TRUE CHURCH. He is is a signer of the ” Evangelicals and Catholics together. compact.
The RCC is polluted with idolatrous dogma from stem to stern. God commands us explicitly to, ” not go beyond what is written”. The RCC dogma is derived, almost entirely, from directly defying this command from God. All RCC arguments against this reality are the epitome of the straw man fallacy.
Then again if Christians did their homework and understood the heretical beliefs and teachings of Bohnhoffer they would not be quoting or admiring him either. Just asking.

The quote is true regardless of who said it. I did my research, but found the quote to be very relevant to my post. I am very cautious of who I quote, but in this instance it would be more honest to give credit where credit is due. Thank you though for bringing this to my attention. I’ll put in a disclaimer.

Brother Alvarado,
Sorry that I got so exercised. Who has not been under-informed or misinformed concerning certain people or certain movements. This is why apologetic ministries such as D & C are so invaluable in these times of such deception and confusion. I would be embarrassed to admit to all the theological balderdash that I in innocent ignorance formerly found acceptable. I am still learning how to discern discernment ministries. Once I even linked to an article which was also true, “regardless of who said it”, article written by COG writer. My brother quickly pointed out that it stood for Church of God as in Herbert W. Armstrong. Hopefully I learned a cautionary lesson from that misstep. Almost every false teacher and or teaching has some truth tossed into the mix.